History's People by Rob Lukens: 1816 - The year without a summer

Publishers of predictive almanacs like the ìColumbian Almanacî never could have guessed the wild weather that they would experience in the summer 1816. Courtesy of the Chester County Historical Society, West Chester.

True – the winter of 2013-2014 was absolutely miserable. But imagine if, here in the month of April, snows still fell and frosts persisted through the summer.

Such was life for everyone in Chester County and beyond in 1816, also known as the “Year Without a Summer.” From May through August, sporadic cold spells wreaked havoc from the United States to Europe. June snowstorms pelted New England, steady frosts destroyed the season’s crops, and livestock died from exposure. Crop prices skyrocketed and violent food riots erupted in Britain, France and Switzerland as these countries endured severe famine.

Here in Chester County, Birmingham farmer Alban Harvey must have known something was awry when he recorded the weather in his 1816 diary:

• June 4 – “Heavy Frosts”

• June 10 – “Heavy Frosts”

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• June 11 – “Heavy Frosts”

In a county where people depended upon agriculture for their livelihoods, farmers like Harvey despaired over crop destruction. As one local paper noted, “every green thing was either killed or withered.” Through June, people continued wearing winter clothing and burning firewood to keep warm. On July 5, things reached their worst when a cold rainstorm coated Chester County with a half inch of ice.

On paper, temperatures through the summer of 1816 seem only slightly lower than average. Although chilly, an August average of 66 degrees in Philadelphia might not sound catastrophic. The devastation did not come from persistent cold, but rather from three deep cold spells in the summer months which lasted for a week each. After each frost, temperatures rose and restored confidence that summer had returned to normal. On June 5, for example, temperatures soared into the 80s in New England. By June 9, however, frosts reached as far south as Richmond, Virginia. Then temperatures rose again, reaching 100 degrees in parts of New England on June 22.

Severe drought compounded the fluctuating temperatures. By August, reports came from Philadelphia that the Schuylkill was so low that a person could walk across it without getting his or her feet wet.

Historian C. Edward Skeen’s book “1816: America Rising” uncovers the profound ripple effect that the freakish weather had on American society. Anti-alcohol organizations used grain shortages to support their agenda. Why distill liquor from grain, the logic went, when it was sorely needed for food?

Others reacted by migrating west, where they sought the promise of prosperity and more pleasant climes. In politics, disgruntled voters booted incumbents whom they blamed for their problems. Finally, for obvious reasons, the “Year Without a Summer” marked the beginning of standardized record keeping in the field of meteorology.

Meanwhile, wild speculations circulated about the source of the miserable weather. One popular theory blamed the lightning rod craze that swept the country. Invented by Benjamin Franklin, the rods were believed by some to prevent heat from rising from the earth’s core into the atmosphere. Other theories pointed to sunspots or excessive ice in northern regions as likely causes.

Oddly enough, it was not Franklin’s lightning rods but his theories that led to the discovery of the weather’s cause. In 1920, climatologist William Humphreys came across a publication by Franklin that discussed another cold summer, that of 1783. In that pamphlet, Franklin blamed the cold on dust from volcanic activity in Iceland. From this, Humphreys determined that a similar volcanic eruption caused the devastating conditions in 1816. A year before, Mount Tambora in modern-day Indonesia spewed forth more than a million and a half tons of volcanic dust. As the dust circled the globe, it screened the sun, creating a summer that people would be talking about for decades, even centuries.

Rob Lukens is president of the Chester County Historical Society. For information visit www.chestercohistorical.org.